Cake Poker Network Traffic Drastically Declines

Just one year ago the Cake Poker Network was riding high in the PokerScout.com traffic rankings, listed in the top 10 and reaching an all-time high of position 8, however exactly one year on they find themselves in a rapid decline in position 26.

In February 2010 the Cake Network had a 7-day average of 2,250 real-money cash-game players, however today that average is just 650 and sees them sitting in position 26 on the PokerScout.com traffic rankings, behind networks such as Merge and Ongame, and even 3D poker site PKR.com is ahead of them despite only being one room.

The drastic decline is due to several of their biggest poker rooms leaving the network to join a different network, mixed with a few other problems the site has encountered over the last twelve months.

The network’s problems first began when Lock Poker became the first of many sites to switch network’s. Lock Poker left the network in March 2010, moving to the Merge Gaming Network, and while it wasn’t one of the biggest sites on the network, it would prove to be the first in a series of blows to the network.

Sportsbook Poker and PlayersOnly Poker then moved to the Merge Gaming Network in a move which crippled the Cake Network. Both of these sites brought in lots of players to the Cake Network mainly because they were considered by many players to be the fishiest online poker sites.

The network’s downfall continued as PokerTableRatings.com publicly announced that they had cracked the encryption of the Cake Poker software. This left the network in limbo as lots of concerned players withdrew their funds from the network opting to play at a more secure poker site. This issue saw lots of pressure put on Lee Jones (who was the Cardroom Manager) and not long after this incident he announced his resignation from the site, and was followed by Tournament Director Serge Ravitch.

It was the latest departure of DoylesRoom (poker site of legend Doyle Brunson) which seems to have caused the most damage and seemingly left the future of the network in trouble.

It seems like the future of the site will rely on sites like Victory Poker and PowerPoker (site of Ilari ‘Ziigmund’ Sahamies) growing and improving, however it certainly wouldn’t be a suprise to see these sites switch network’s in 2011 as the Cake Network’s troubles continue in a downhill slump.